I guarantee someone in your work life has had a “How do they get paid for this?” moment because you assume you know how to communicate merely because you’ve been doing it for years. In the 12 years I spent working as the in-house communications staff, I only saw a few people outside roles like mine intentionally learn how to be a better communicator. And it showed.

It might seem like a dick move to be talking about celebration when we're rounding the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic. After we've lost so much, as we miss more birthdays and anniversaries, postpone weddings and drastically alter the way we mark transitions, what place does celebration have in our lives?

There’s the call to action, folks. It’s in big letters twice because I want you be sure you get that point today. This concept isn’t new to regular readers; I’ve mentioned it before, and hinted at it in other pieces. The time has passed for us to passively take in media of any kind. Be intentional about what you’re taking in and whose voice you’re getting.

Words have meaning—both literal and figurative—and if we are careless with either type of meaning, it can have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. Uninformed or hasty word choice can be a window into our biases, and shape people's perception of issues and events. Which is why we need to stop using war imagery when we talk about COVID-19.

I am a person first. I want to know when it’s safe for me to get together with my friends and family, and how we can protect each other when that happens. So here I am, putting my old journalism hat back on, and writing the article I haven’t yet seen: about how the people of Saskatchewan need to respond as businesses begin to re-open while COVID-19 continues to circulate.